


you taught me the courage of the stars

by leov66



Series: until you break, until you yield [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BOM! Keith, F/M, Injury, Mentions of Blood, Reminiscing, implied mild sexual content, lance and shiro are friends thanks, looks like hurt but its actually not angsty, mentions of scars, set around 4/5 years after canon events, yup they're still fighting aliens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 07:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12699846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leov66/pseuds/leov66
Summary: She’s just as beautiful as on the day they met, her Altean markings shining even brighter in the pod, her hair flowing like a veil.while Lance watches Allura in the healing pod, he thinks about the past.(companion piece towhere my armour ends, where my skin begins)





	you taught me the courage of the stars

**Author's Note:**

> my first vld fic here i goooo
> 
> my tumblr is [@euphra-sie](https://euphra-sie.tumblr.com) in case anybody wanted to hmu for some Disk Horse

It’s easy to act like you’re invincible. Much easier than to accept that everything inside you could break and fall apart from a single slice of a blade and you’d be dead in seconds. It’s a terrifying thought, even if he’s been fighting aliens for years now. Everything he is, it could just…not exist anymore, if he got stabbed the right way. Holy shit, he’s _kinda_ _panicking._ And it’s not even him who got injured.

 

He puts his hand on the healing pod, watches Allura with a fond enough expression to give Pidge ten years’ worth of blackmail material.

 

He should’ve known better than that, should’ve noticed how she kept brushing everything off, should’ve insisted he look at her wounds. Maybe then she wouldn’t have collapsed on him from the blood loss. 

 

 _Nope, not thinking about that_. Lance from the past would’ve probably drooled at the thought of holding the Princess in his arms, but it seems like things have changed since then. They’re no longer the same kids that left Earth.

 

( _What happened_ , he wants to ask himself, and the answer never changes. _Everything,_ that’s what happened. The map of scars over their bodies, silver and red and purple, the nightmares they all have, it’s only the price for freedom of the universe. They have to keep saying that, or else they would’ve all gone mad.)

 

She’s just as beautiful as on the day they met, her Altean markings shining even brighter in the pod, her hair flowing like a veil. She’s scarred all over, too, he knows that better than anyone, having traced every single one of them with his mouth. _Nothing about you couldn’t_ not _be beautiful,_ he murmured against her shoulder, and he’s still right. She’s a dream, a _femme fatale_ of his youth, but she could never ruin him, only make him realize who he wants to be.

 

 _Someone who deserves you, Allura,_ he told her that night, shameful and angry, and she just looked at him, like she expected that. There was almost pride in her eyes, like he’d done the right thing, made the right choice, and that in itself was worth it.

 

Now she’s in the pod, mainly because he didn’t make sure she was absolutely fine, and he’s staring at her, wondering how many times she’d done the exact same thing with him. He did have his fair share of this kind of accidents.

 

“She’s gonna be alright,” Shiro says quietly and puts a hand on his shoulder. Lance turns around and smiles weakly.

 

“I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier,” he replies. “Man, I’ve gone so sappy, I can _feel_ it.”

 

Shiro laughs, and it makes Lance happy, because he’s been doing it more often now. “Four years ago, you wouldn’t leave me alone for days if I said anything remotely similar.” Along the way, they snapped into that lighthearted bickering, and it’s once again something so surprising to the previous Lance that it in itself makes him smile a little. 

 

There’s something about the way Shiro’s smile falls that makes him connect the dots. “He’s gone again, isn’t he?”

 

The Black Paladin nods. “Says it’ll be for a few weeks, but you know how it is with the Blades.”

 

Shiro and Keith’s status has been the only stable thing in this godforsaken war. Captivity or not, another worthless treaty or a mock duel to install mock justice, they’ve always been at each others’ side if they needed that, ready to cross the universe for a single word. Lance wonders if he and Allura start to be seen like that sometimes.

 

“What happened?”, Shiro asks.

 

“We got into a fight on our way back from the colonies. She kept protecting her right side, I remember now,” he sighs.

 

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, what matters is that she’s healing now. We’ve all got our regrets.”

 

Lance remembers Shiro’s perfectly, it’s burnt onto his memory. There have been few moments when he was more afraid than _that._ Keith’s blood, all over his torn suit, Shiro and the floor, Pidge’s tears (Matt held her then, made sure that she wouldn’t see), Shiro screaming at them all to _do something, not let him die_. 

 

He’s pretty sure Shiro’s thinking about the very same thing right now. “We’ve gotta keep moving forward, right?”

 

“Yeah. I’ll ask Pidge about the map, meet me there in twenty?”

 

The map was Pidge’s newest obsession. She kept one of Galran holographic maps, hacked it, and tried to get some more information out of it, like the placement of their fleet, all that stuff. It helps keep her grounded, and she always has something to do.

 

“Alright.”

 

He knows Allura won’t leave the pod for a few hours, but watching her wounds fade into scars is enough comfort.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos keep writers motivated!!!


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